As some of you know I am 17 years old and benchs 160, well I got a question along with some good news. I recently heard some lifters at my gym saying they bounce the weight off their chest to lift heavy weights. I tried it and it hurt, really bad. I then was reading Physical Mag and I heard about the board lift. Where you bounce the weight off a board placed on your chest. Well I tried this and it works. It is a 3/4 inch board. I then tried it with one 60 and got it up, it was pretty easy. I then lift 170 pounds, finally! I was wondering if the board takes away any of the stress placed on the muscles to help them grow. Thanks

I am no expert but I suspect it is using momentum to help with the lift. This would be similar to 'bouncing back' from the bottom of a bicep curl instead of coming to a momentary stop between lowering and raising the weights. I though that this would breach 'correct form' for lifting weights but it just may belong to the same area as partial reps, which can assist in overall development. I still suspect it may be dangerous once the weight start getting higher.

Bouncing the weight may help you get a few extra pounds because the conserved energy is helping you lift the weight through the hardest portion of the lift, the bottom. The board simply distributes the energy over a greater area so it isn't painful. I don't reccommend it.

Don't bounce the weight. It's dangerous and it's a waste of time. You might have been able to lift 170 instead of 160, but your muscles will have gotten less stimulation than when you lifted 160 properly. All you're doing is using the momentum of the bars bounce to help you. This results in you actually lifting less net weight = less muscular overload = less growth/development. Having a bigger ego by telling people you can lift "170lbs" instead of 160 doen't give you bigger/stronger muscles.